Tattoo parlor owners must be salivating. An assertion in a Minneapolis Star Tribune article that our understanding of the zodiac is off by about a month - and that therefore people have been identifying themselves with the wrong sign - caught fire on the internet Thursday, and many folks are in an absolute panic on social media.

"If my zodiac symbol has been changed to a Libra, what am I supposed to do with my Scorpio tattoo?!?!," read one tweet Thursday.

Some vowed to get their tats removed. Others groaned about losing the sign with which theyâ€™ve identified themselves for years. The zodiac and related terms - including Ophiuchus, said to be a 13thÂ and neglected sign - were trending Twitter topics much of Thursday.

But before astrology fans scrape the ink from their arms because they think they're now a Virgo instead of a Libra, they should consider this: If they adhered to the tropical zodiac - which, if they're a Westerner, they probably didÂ - absolutely nothing has changed for them.

That's worth rephrasing:Â If you considered yourself a Cancer under the tropical zodiac last week, you're still a Cancer under the same zodiac this week.

That's because the tropical zodiacÂ - which is fixed to seasons, and which Western astrology adheres toÂ - differs from the sidereal zodiacÂ - which is fixed to constellations and is followed more in the East, and is the type of zodiac to which the Star Tribune article ultimately refers.

Two zodiacs. That's nothing new.

"This storyÂ is born periodically as if someone has discovered some truth. It's not news," said Jeff Jawer, astrologer with Tarot.com.

The hubbub started with Sunday's Star Tribune article, which said the following: "The ancient Babylonians based zodiac signs on the constellation the sun was 'in' on the day a person was born. During the ensuing millenniums, the moonâ€™s gravitational pull has made the Earth 'wobble' around its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars' alignment."

"When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, itâ€™s really not in Pisces," Parke Kunkle, a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society, told the Star Tribune.

"Indeed," the article continued, "most horoscope readers who consider themselves Pisces are actually Aquarians." The article also asserts Scorpio's window lasts only seven days, and that a 13th constellation, Ophiuchus, used to be counted between Scorpio and Sagittarius but was discarded by the Babylonians because they wanted 12 signs per year.

True enough, Jawer says, the sun doesn't align with constellations at the same time of year that it did millennia ago. But thatâ€™s irrelevant for the tropical zodiac, codified for Western astrology by Ptolemy in the second century, he says.

In the tropical zodiac, the start of Aries is fixed to one equinox, and Libra the other.

"When we look at the astrology used in the Western world, the seasonally based astrology has not changed, was never oriented to the constellations, and stands as â€¦ has been stated for two millenniums," Jawer said.

People who put stock in astrologyÂ canÂ ask whether they should adhere to the tropical zodiac or the sidereal zodiac. Jawer argues for the tropical.

"Astrology is geocentric. It relates life on Earth to the Earthâ€™s environment, and seasons are the most dramatic effect, which is why we use the tropical zodiac," he said.

This is just dumb we r in the year 2011 and ur telling me this is the first time in years that the earth has ever wobbled on its axis give me a break it had to of wobbled plenty of times before to mess with the aliginment of moon and stars and all that stuff before and yet our zodiac signs stayed the same for 200,000 years but now they all of a sudden change plz I'm stickin to my capicorn as well as my son bein his gimini and my soon to be baby will also go by the NORMAL REAL ZODIAC! Give me a break ppl

Of course, what CNN doesn't bother to mention is that astrology is a bunch of sheer woo-ish nonsense based on nothing factual whatsoever, woo that con artists use to sucker people out of their money. Just like religion.

That nonsense raises its ugly head every few years. No one denies the backward progression of the Vernal Equinox however the fact that the signs change is based upon an ignorant understanding of the basic concepts of astrology. They believe the signs are moving backward and other nonsense. This comes from the silly notion that the influence comes from the background stars - it does not. The influence is in the Earth. The planets including the Sun and Moon as they appear against the background stars or Ecliptic are like hands of a complex clock. The background stars are like the numbers at the outside edge of the clock. They have no influence what-so-ever on the clock mechanism (In the Earth). The Astrological year begins at the point where the Sun crosses the celestial horizon on the first day of spring. The clock year begins too with 12 30 degree signs beginning from that point. It has absolutely nothing to do with the stars or the perceived constellations. This is a silly notion from people who know nothing about astrology.

So this is absolutely crazy talk. If they discarded the 13th due to wanting 12 signs then we should discard it too. So in other words, this isn't a discovery, but someone found out what they discarded thousands of years ago already. So no change. Right? Since I was little; Pluto was a planet, now it isn't. Now your telling me my zodiac sign that I have grown up upon and said proudly that I am a Taurus, now I must say I am a Aries? I think not. You know what media world..? You can keep changing the world as I know it; but here's the Taurus in me shining bright.. Go back to your hole you crawled out of; I'm living my life as I have known it. I'm not changing. =) That's a true Taurus for ya!

Youve got to be kidding, with all the problems this country has with our jobs going overseas, illegal mexican trash taking the jobs we do have, a government that sits on thier fat, greedy, mexican loving, cant get anything done, self righgious a.. and all we have to talk about is the da.. zodiac ?? What a waste of life !!!!

Obviously, since you read this article, you are aware of its existence enough to comment and whine about its seeming displacement of other news items. Last I checked on CNN.com, this is not the only news story; funny how there are so many others for you to read, including "illegal mexicans" et al.

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